


Should I Remember You

by MedicalMystery



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst, Betrayal, Eris is based off of my Comrades character, I Tried, I'm Sorry, M/M, Memory Loss, Some Fluff, it's probably sad, mostly angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-05-04 18:48:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14599419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MedicalMystery/pseuds/MedicalMystery
Summary: Eris had been in Insomnia for as long as he could remember. It was desolate and crawling with daemons, but he survived. He couldn't bring himself to leave. It wasn't until a man named Libertus took him from the fallen city and into Lestallum that he realized his life was much emptier than he thought.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this after playing Comrades. Originally it was just for a friend of mine, but I guess I'll post it publicly. The chapters are relatively short, but I'm trying to make them longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is written under the assumption that Eris' face is already known when it's not because, as I said, I actually only wrote this because I wanted to share the story with my friend. Now that I'm actually sharing it publicly, I'll just post a link to what Eris looks like. 
> 
> https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/311363649195343882/444008053143109652/23783777_1432301663486389_725581361619370787_o.png

_ How did this happen? _

_ “Eris, get to the conference room!” He felt slow as he turned to his comrade struggling desperately against another Glaive. He couldn’t let them fight. He had to stop them… He had to... _

_ “Don’t let him reach the king!”  _

_ How did this happen…? _

_ “ERIS, RUN!” He didn’t have time to blink. Right before his very eyes, he watched his own comrade die. He couldn’t even help him. As the traitors started towards him, he turned on his heel and ran. He could hear them running after him, some of them warping, but he couldn’t let himself be caught.  _

_ He was so close to the chamber, but someone grabbed his hood and he was yanked back and thrown to the ground. He fell through the floor and suddenly he was outside. If he thought the Citadel looked horrible, what he saw now was a punch to the gut.  _

_ There was blood everywhere. There were ruined buildings surrounding the area and bodies in the streets… men… women, children… There were so many people dead… There was so much blood… Too much… He felt nauseous.  _

_ He wasn’t supposed to have any time to let it sink in, not in that moment. He was supposed to be running away. He was supposed to help the survivors out of the city. He shouldn’t have stopped because the person from the Citadel was back, grabbing his hood and pushing him to the ground. Above him, he saw Sonitus, smiling wickedly, holding one of his knives as he pushed the blade down to his throat.  _

_ “Sorry, Kid.” The sharpened edge cut deep into his skin, burning and stinging. He could feel blood seeping out from the wound and dribbling to the side to fall to the floor. _

_ He screamed. _

 

He gasped as his eyes opened suddenly and he felt a headache coming. In his lap was a coat that looked familiar, but he couldn’t figure out where it came from. A large man sat in front of him with a sad smile on his face. 

“You talk in your sleep,” he said, “Do you remember what you dreamed about?” 

As his hand went to his throat he felt a strange difference in his skin. There was a long line of smooth skin surrounded by callouses. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. He quickly gave up and chose to sit back and relax a little. Both of them were in a pickup truck, headed somewhere that was presumably safer than where he was before. He wondered where he was going. He couldn’t remember a thing… 

“What do you know, Kid?” the man asked a little bit later. There was no malice in the question, he wasn’t taunting him. He sounded concerned and almost sad. Why was he calling him “kid”? They were both the same age, weren’t they? Did he have a name…? Of course he did, everyone had one. Then why couldn’t he remember it? Why did he feel so empty? Why did the coat in his lap look so familiar? What was going on? 

The man sighed, clearly disappointed about something. “My name is Libertus. I’m a Glaive, just like you. We used to live in Insomnia, but that city’s long gone now. We’re taking you to Lestallum to live a safer life… Hopefully you’ll regain whatever memories you’ve lost since the fall.” 

He was a glaive. Like a weapon? He wrapped his fingers around the fabric of the uniform in his lap. He opened his mouth again to try and speak. His voice came out scratchy and foreign. He probably hadn’t been talking a lot. “Do you… happen to know who I am?”

There was a pause. He looked to be thinking about what he could say to that. “I can tell you your name.” He figured that that was about as much as he’d get from the man. “Your name is Eris.” 

“Whose uniform is this…?” He gestured to the one in his lap and the man looked sad again, like someone killed his goldfish and cooked it for dinner. He’d ask why Libertus looked so sad, but one glance at his surroundings would have told him more than he cared to know.

“A friend’s. You’re free to keep it, though. I’ve no use for it.” 

He decided not to ask anymore questions. Shrugging off the coat he was wearing, he took the one in his lap and pulled it on. He felt safer with it, even though it was just another piece of clothing. 

Whoever used to wear it must have been a kind person if their clothes still felt like home. “... Thank you…” 

“Don’t sweat it, Kid. When we get there, just stay safe for me, yeah? We’ve lost far too many people already.”

“I’ll try…” Eris pulled the coat tighter around himself. It was burned and ripped in some places, but he didn’t really care. “What do we do now? You said we were Glaives… Do we still…” He didn’t finish the sentence. The shake of Libertus’ head was all the confirmation he needed. For some reason, he felt guilty.

“Not after the fall. Now we fight to secure hope for a future. That’s all we can do.” Libertus sighed. “Get some more rest, Kid. You’ve got a long journey ahead of you.” 

“... Okay…” The second he closed his eyes, he felt exhausted despite not doing anything. He let himself sleep again and he was thrown right back into a familiar dream. 

 

_ Sonitus was gone. He didn’t know what happened, but he disappeared leaving him to bleed out on the ground. Trembling, he spread his arms apart and cast a spell on himself to seal the wound. He wasn’t a mage and he was terrible with magic, but it would have to do. When the blood was no longer dripping, he pulled himself up. _

_ There was no one left. He was alone and the chaos in the background pushed him forward. He began to search for survivors to help escort them out of the city. There weren’t many, which really began to sink in. A lot of the people were in the streets at the time. Now that the daemons could enter the city, he doubted many people could handle them.  _

_ He couldn’t leave them, though. He couldn’t let them rot in the streets like that. While everyone made for the borders, Eris stayed behind. He watched the chaos of the battle in front of the Citadel, between a daemon and something else. It should have scared him, but all he could think about was whether or not he was the last Glaive standing.  _

_ He wasn’t scared. It was just another Tuesday for him when it came to this kind of stuff. He was sad, though. So many of his brothers and sisters were killed at each other’s hands. He wondered how many more died when they split up into groups. How many traitors were there in the Kingsglaive?  _

_ Was Nyx still alive…? _

 

His eyes were open again


	2. Chapter 1

_ “Hey, Kid, when did you get glasses?” Unlike some of the comments he’d been expecting, Nyx’s question was out of pure curiosity, as if this was completely unexpected. In a way, it probably was. “Never noticed them before.” _

_ Almost instinctively, Eris reached up to where the frames were perched. He felt self conscious about them the whole day since he’d woken up late and completely forgotten to replace his glasses with contacts. He’d been getting strange looks all day because of it and it was unnerving. “I’ve had ‘em a while,” he mumbled, taking them off and cleaning invisible specks of dust from them. “They’re just not all that great for when we’re on missions and stuff, so I’ve been wearing contacts.”  _

_ Even though he knew he hated it, Nyx ruffled his hair with a little laugh. “Good thinking. You’re lucky there wasn’t a lot today, otherwise you’d probably be killed.”  _

_ “Of course not. You’d have my back, wouldn’t you?”  _

_ There it was again, that laugh. Nyx wasn’t known for laughing much, but when he did, it was nice. It felt  _ normal _. “Of course I would.” _

  
  


“Hey, Kid. We’re here.” He was shaken awake by Libertus and he frowned. What was he dreaming about again? He couldn’t remember… Then again, if he couldn’t remember, it probably wasn’t important. “C’mon. Hurry up, it isn’t safe out here.” Eris climbed out of the pickup and waited awkwardly for a moment before he trailed after Libertus. There was a man standing near what was probably the entrance to the city.  It was a makeshift gate, made of broken down cars to keep anything from going into the city. The cars were slowly pulled up and he was given entrance. As soon as he stepped inside, he saw how broken everything seemed. There was a totaled and rusted car simply sitting at the steps and very little people.

Their emotions seemed to be divided. There were some who still had hope for survival while others had all but lost it. There were some who seemed more grateful to be alive while there were others who seemed more interested in criticizing others, one of which caught his ear as he passed by. 

“That marshal walks around like a pathetic patrolman…” He stopped and backtracked a little to hear better. “...and don’t get me started on the prince’s “royal retainers”! Buncha bums if you ask me!" Libertus clenched his fists, the other man who had greeted them at the gates walked a little stiffly. Eris turned his attention elsewhere in case he was being obvious that he was staring. 

He poked Libertus' side when he was right behind him. "I thought you said that this was a safe place." 

Libertus didn't answer him right away. He frowned, yes, but it wasn't he who answered. “It is,” the man from the gate replied, “the people here can’t hurt you and hurting each other gives you and other Glaives here permission to beat the crap out of them.” He took his supplies with a brief thanks and then turned to fully face Eris. “Gently, of course. Can’t have you killing anyone now that our populations are decreasing.”

Eris stared blankly at him. He blinked a couple of times and tried for a smile, but it came out awkward and crooked instead. He gave up almost immediately with a tired shrug and he avoided his gaze. 

“Don’t worry about it.” The man gave him a pat on the shoulder and lightly pushed him towards the stairs. “Go on, then. Get to know the people you’re gonna be living with from now on. It’s best to get a good grip on who everyone is, you know. Make some friends.” When he was gone, it was as if he was never there to begin with. Libertus was nowhere to be found either. Eris found himself simply staring at that empty space for a while until someone else caught his attention.

“You know,  _ Kingsglaive _ ’s got a nice ring to it and all, but in the end, Tredd was right. To them, we’re nothing but rats, plucked straight out of the sewers. But y’know what? We’re the luckiest rats around…” Rats? Tredd? He said that? She  _ agreed  _ with him? “After all, King Regis chose to give us a chance… In a way, he saved us when no one else would… I haven’t forgotten what he’s done for us. Have you?” She didn’t bother waiting for a response. She merely left him to think on it, but he couldn’t come up with an answer. 

He’d forgotten, yes, but he couldn’t be ungrateful… If their lives were so horrible that a  _ monarch  _ had to step in to keep them from dying, then surely he’d be pretty happy about it, right? Then again…  _ rats _ …? That sounded familiar, and he felt a spark of irritation and anger at the mere sound of the word, but he couldn’t put a finger on  _ where  _ it was coming from… 

 

The thought disappeared as soon as it came. He walked around the area to get a better feel of the place. 

_ Maybe he should have avoided talking to the Glaives _ . It was just a thought, and one he should have listened to. So far, he’d met up with three other Glaives from Insomnia who arrived in this city long before he did, both referencing to things he couldn’t understand. He felt like a child, staring blankly at the adult until he was given cryptic or unnecessary  answers that never revealed anything.

“Nowadays, Lestallum is known as ‘The City of Hope,’ the last beacon of hope for mankind,” another former Glaive had told him. “That’s why everyone’s gathered here. Refugees are pouring in from all corners of Eos and it’s our job to keep them safe from the daemons. We Glaives fight for hearth and home and  _ this  _ is our home now.” 

Before he could stop himself, he told the man, “It doesn’t feel like it.” The man looked put off by the comment, but he couldn’t find it in himself to regret the statement, because it was true. As he passed by all those people, he heard different stories regarding some sort of discrimination or violence, and sometimes both. He’d never call such a place his  _ home _ . Then again... the last place he lived was no better. 

“It doesn’t matter if it feels like it or not,” came the response, “this is all we’ve got, so we’d better salvage it the best we can.” 

He chose not to continue that conversation. He didn’t think either side would understand the other, and he wasn’t sure how he could explain his part. The man was right, though. Even if there were stupid people here, he had to protect them. It wouldn’t do any good if he just stood by and watched as everyone rotted away. For some reason, that thought gave him shivers.

 

He eventually met up with Libertus again, once he'd finished his small exploration of the city. After getting to know some of the people there, Eris concluded that he probably wasn't going to enjoy every second he spent there. The quicker he received orders, the better. He couldn’t stand being in such a small, confined place for long, no matter how "safe" it was. 

“There you are, Kid. How do you like your new home?” Libertus sounded almost hopeful, but Eris could have sworn it sounded kind of fake. He chose not to comment on it and kept quiet. The silence was all the answer Libertus needed, apparently, because he sighed and his smile dropped a little. “I know it’s nothing like Insomnia, but you’ll get used to it. I promise.” 

Once again, he chose to remain silent. There was nothing he could say that would refute that promise, so he’d simply have to hold it to the man. They stood there for a moment before Eris unwrapped the coat from around him and held it out towards Libertus. “Do you want it back? You did say it belonged to a friend.” 

“It’s okay, Kid. It’s not that important.” 


End file.
